W.H.: Obamacare site now works for 'vast majority'

The Obama administration said Sunday that it achieved its goal of making HealthCare.gov work for the “vast majority” of users after the disastrous start of enrollment in the president’s signature health law.

The Obamacare website will be able to support more than 800,000 consumers per day, the administration said. And the site is now online more than 90 percent of the time, not including scheduled downtime for maintenance.

“The bottom line: HealthCare.gov on Dec. 1st is night and day from where it was on Oct. 1st,” Jeff Zients, the management expert steering the repair mission, told reporters Sunday morning.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says it has repaired more than 400 items on its “punch list” of bugs and needed fixes. The agency also said it reduced response times from 8 seconds in late October to less than 1 second and error rates are under 1 percent.

But when asked directly what work remains, Zients did not provide specifics. He said new rapid response teams will be ready to repair any bugs, which were not in place on Oct. 1 originally.

The real test will be when consumers get back on the site — and whether it performs.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), on a “This Week” panel, said the problems with Obamacare will continue to damage the president and his administration.

“The first impression here was terrible, and I think it will be an unfolding disaster for the president,” Cole said. “This thing is going to be an unmitigated political disaster for the president.”

Performance and stepped up enrollment now is critical for the administration - and for millions of people eligible for health insurance in the new exchanges. Those who want coverage by Jan. 1 - including several million distraught people whose current health plans were cancelled despite the president’s assurances — have until Dec. 23 to sign up.

Challenges that remain include getting the “back end” of the site working better so it can send the health plans the enrollment data they need to get people covered.

An administration spokesperson said Sunday that people who have already tried to get on the site — not new customers — are the first priority in the coming days.

“While there is more work to be done, the team is operating with private sector velocity and effectiveness, and will continue their work to improve and enhance the website in the weeks and months ahead,” the administration wrote in a report outlining its success.

For all the claims of improvement, Zients acknowledged that the site’s overall performance isn’t good enough and that work will continue on both the consumer experience and the inner workings of the site.

CMS officials acknowleged the “back end” remains a concern. That includes the features that send consumer applications and data to the insurance companies to finalize enrollment in a specific health plan.

“A number of the fixes that went into place this weekend in particular will significantly address some of the highest priority things that we know were a particular concern with those transaction forms,” said Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for CMS.

Many of the early “834” files — which transmit the information to the insurers — had errors or duplication. Bataille said now that improvements have been made, the administration needs to see new “834” transaction forms go to the insurance companies to analyze the success or error rates. But she said the improvements to the applications and overall system will ensure that better data go to the insurance companies.